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DACs: Airport Express vs waveterminal vs mini-dac

I know this is impossible to quantify, but with a good stereo system (Cayin TA30 tube integrated amp & Green Mountain Audio Europa speakers), what's the magnitude of difference using the following dacs?

Airport Express (I already have the AX, and can connect it to the integrated amp with RCA's [analog])

Waveterminal U24: computer to USB to waveterminal to amp (waveterminal does the DA conversion)

Inexpensive DAC like ART DIO with waveterminal: computer to USB to waveterminal to ART DIO to amp (ART DIO does DA conversion)

Apogee mini-dac: computer to USB to mini-dac to amp

Other?

What's the best bang for the buck?
mschamberlin3865
kenn39
75 posts
 
Dollar for dollar, you can't do better than hard drive based transport.

Don't know much about the Mac world. Perhaps someone can shed some lights on the particulars in the Mac world, such as how to get bit-perfect digital stream out of a Mac.

The only other thing is whether the noise level from your laptop and hard drive can become a factor.
ecruz
402 posts
 
I would be using iTunes with full size files. I've considered getting a Mac Mini to run everything.

What else do I need to know?
kenn39
75 posts
 
I was afraid of the word "iTunes". On a WinPC, Foobar2000 gives better sound than iTunes in my opinion.

Again, I don't know much about the Macs. To be safe, you may want to find out how to get bit-perfect digital stream from a Mac before proceeding.

Good luck!
kalalena
1 posts
 
I have AE's going through a DAC1 to Red Rose Spirit's in my bedroom setup. Amazing, significant upgrade.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Kenn39 wrote:
I was afraid of the word "iTunes". On a WinPC, Foobar2000 gives better sound than iTunes in my opinion.

This is because iTunes on PC does not bypass Kmixer. With Foobar2000, you can usually find an ASIO plug-in that will do this.

Again, I don't know much about the Macs. To be safe, you may want to find out how to get bit-perfect digital stream from a Mac before proceeding.

iTunes on MAC is perfectly fine. Bit-perfect. You can even upsample.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer/modder
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